Mission balance

Several FreeSpace missions suffer from bad mission balance. By a mission being "badly balanced," we usually mean that a mission is on the either extreme of the difficulty spectrum. It is either too hard or too easy.

Too hard missions typically come about by very skilled players who match a mission's difficulty to their abilities. These missions are too hard for mediocre players. It is also possible that the FREDder makes a mission and tests it all along with one strategy. Players who take a different approach to the mission will encounter unexpected difficulties. This is bad for the mission designer, too, because it becomes clear that only one "approach" to the mission is tested.

Too easy missions require at most a minimal amount of effort from the player to be successfully completed. A good example for this is "Surrender, Belisarius!," the first mission of the FreeSpace 2 main campaign. Even if the player's dogfighting abilities are limited, the mission will be successful. This is an adequate approach, given the fact that this is the first mission of the campaign. However, the first mission ("Eve of Destruction") in FreeSpace 1 is a worse example of an "easy mission." As a commentator noted, it is not necessary for the player to intervene at all. "Surrender, Belisarius" can be lost if the player does not intervene on any level.

Granting the "right" balance to a mission requires time, patience, circumspection, and enthusiasm. Make the mission (very) easy at first. Mission balancing is something you don't have to worry about until your mission is whole. Make sure all your messages show up, debriefings appear over the condition they are expected, nobody can cross your calculations by ordering transports and cruisers around etc. It is easier to reach the end of an easy mission than an unbearably hard one. Sometimes the thing you want to test is at the end of the mission and you simply cannot reach the end if your mission is very hard. It is the end product that should work fine. Do mission balancing only after all the other parts of the mission are satisfactory.

Hints

Human factor

A mission designer must know how his flying skills compare to that of an "average FreeSpace player." What is just fine for a renowned PXO veteran will be overwhelming for an average player. While it is possible to lower the difficult level, a mission that can only be completed on Very Easy by an average player is badly balanced. It helps if a mission designer tests and optimizes the mission on the setting he is used to playing on. That difficulty setting will enable him to draw comparisons more easily than on other difficulty levels.

Preferences between any two players is to be taken into account. It is possible for a player to be "simply better" than another one, but it is also possible for a player to be "better in a given role" than the other. A player who prefers pure firepower (GTF Hercules Mark II, GTF Erinyes) will give such craft to his players. A mission that involves some intense dogfighting may be easy for someone who has gotten used to the Erinyes, but one who prefers pure interceptors in this role will find dogfighting rather difficult. Unless the story (Scramble mission, supply shortages) demands, it is advised to give the player a wider range of ship and weapon selection than the mission designer would normally see fit.

The first-time player has a major disadvantage compared to the mission designer. The first-time player will not know if he is supposed to win or lose the mission, when and from which direction hostiles arrive, etc. In other words, the player will lack certain information that the mission creator has always had. The mission designer must pretend to the first timer for best effect. That means that even though the mission designer knows that a Moloch can be destroyed by destroying its Reactor subsystem, the player will not unless properly informed. Confusing—or contradictory—briefing stages will make the mission harder, because a player must base his actions on what he has been told. If the player is supposed to lose the mission, like in FreeSpace 2's "The Great Hunt," make it explicit that he should not keep fighting. A Return to base directive will do that, so will seeing the Ravana foil the mission five seconds after it jumped in.

Optionally, it also helps a lot to have another tester around, preferably one whose FS skill level is different than the mission designer's.

FRED-related

Here are some general tips for altering mission difficulty in FRED. The more of these you apply between two test runs the more radically difficulty will change. It is not recommended to do all these tricks all at once or work with intense values between two test runs. If mission difficulty is altered unfavorably between such two test runs, it may not always be evident which change caused that.

• The most general hint is to test your mission every time you modify something gameplay-related in it. While spellchecking has no impact on how the mission is played, changing the position of a capital ship does. By placing, for example, an Orion class 500 meters closer to its target, it will be able to fire a different set of turrets at it from a different angle, and will behave differently.
• Adding more enemy/friendly fighters or increasing the number of enemy/friendly wings can easily result in unwanted results. Do this if a given side has a significantly higher chance of winning. If the difference is relatively slight, this step can suddenly make the mission turn to the other side's favor. Do this only when one of the sides has a significant advantage.
• Changing weapons on fighters. The AI uses the Tornado quite well; this can also be good or bad. Bear this in mind. Make sure the fighters are compatible with the weapons you want to give them.
• Wing arrival delay: Not only can you make your mission longer/shorter by changing the arrival delays, but you can normalize the number of fighters the player and his/her wingmen are going against, too.
• Changing weapons on capital ships or transports. Removing or changing the warheads on capital ships means a lot. Take the Lilith, for example. It is much easier to attack if it does not have warheads. You can also do the same with flaks or anti-fighter beams. Do not remove or change a significant amount of weapons, modify a few of them and test. Be patient, because exagerating the modifications can end up with something nasty.
• Distances: Its importance is most apparent at escort missions: you stand better chance of defending something if the enemy bombers do not arrive right in front of your defendant. However, enemy bombers can be well-armed and they may outnumber the defenders, but if you place too far away from the target you have to defend, the mission becomes too easy.
• AI skill. Has little importance at attacking capital ships, but you can balance some fighters vs. fighters parts by cleverly using the Ai skill. This option does not have any effect on turrets, it only sets how effectively the Ai uses its primary weapons or evades missiles and any incoming threats. You must change the AI of a turret individually in the Weapons Editor. The higher the AI level the better the rate of fire and accuracy in the case of laser turrets and flak guns..
• To achieve better wingmen, you can play around with Events. Try making an Event that does the following: When Alpha 2's hull drops below 50%, recharge its shields and repair its hull. Do the same for Alpha 3, 4, and other wingmen. I personally do not suggest you do this, only when you know nothing better to lengthen the life of your wingmen. You can also make events which gradually regenerate your wingmen's health. For example by 5% every second. Make sure that no regeneration will be done after your wingman in question's hull drops below 50%. People will notice when your wingman's turns gray from red (Wingmen Window, upper-right corner of HUD).
• AI orders. Friendly and hostile wings can also benefit from their AI orders. Wingmen who don't have orders will only keep flying around and let themselves killed until they are given some orders. Even then, if something unexpected happens, they will still follow their orders that might cause their doom. The FREDder who knows when and what will happen in the mission must also prepare the AI players for that by giving them orders, either via the add-goal SEXP or Initial Orders. If a wing of fighters die too quickly and easily at a certain phase of the mission, the mission designer may reconsider altering AI orders.